In 1945, Rosemary Chatham sends her boyfriend overseas a "Dear John" letter, telling him as sweetly as she can that she has moved on, and so should he. Later, when Rosemary and her new boyfriend, Roy, leave the Pritcher College Graduation Dance to go neck in the gazebo, they are interrupted by a murderer in dark military fatigues and armed with a pitchfork.
Thirty-five years later, Pritcher College is finally going to revive the tradition of the Graduation Dance, which had been banned since the school dean's daughter was slaughtered at the Dance in 1945. Of course, that means more murder and mayhem from the unknown killer, as he employs his bayonet and his trademark pitchfork to properly honor Rosemary's death through the spilling of lots and lots of blood.
As the "prowler" terrorizes the campus, most of the students are safely sequestered at the big dance with its Spinal Tap-looking band that keeps playing the same song over and over. Of course, those who do separate from the dance wind up getting slaughtered in pools of blood. One of the victims, for instance, is literally in the pool, with blood. Pool of blood.
The Prowler is a solid slasher from the peak era of the subgenre's quality and influence. In some ways, it can be seen as a run-of-the-mill horror movie (complete with nonsensical, pointless final scare moment), but it is bolstered by the really cool-looking military outfit and helmet the killer wears, some decently tense stalking scenes, and some excellent blood and gore effects from the great Tom Savini. If you are only a casual fan of the mainstream slasher movies, you can probably skip The Prowler, but for horror-obsessives like myself, it's a must-see.
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